The collection consists of fifty boxes, mainly of the compositions and papers of Simon Bucharoff (1881-1955), along with materials related to Bucharoff's brother, Isadore Buchhalter, papers related to activities of Bucharoff's estate, one piece of realia, and the documentation that accompanied the collection from the University of Houston. Bucharoff's papers consist mainly of correspondence, but also include clippings, photographs, concert programs, promotional materials, and writings on non-musical subjects. The materials are predominantly from 1916 through 1967, with a smaller number of materials from before and after that period.

The scores comprise the most complete collection of Bucharoff's works that has yet been assembled and organized. His papers chronicle the his rise to prominence as a pianist, and then as a composer, the struggles of the 1920s and onward, his attempts to promote and publish his works, and reflect the personality, worldview, and spirituality that informed his works.

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Pianist, educator, composer, and writer. Born Simon Buchhalter in Berdychiv (in present-day Ukraine) in 1881, Bucharoff initially rose to prominence as a pianist in Wichita before moving to Chicago, and achieving a measure of success as a composer in Europe in the 1920s. Amid a protracted legal battle over compositions of his which were held by German publishers, Bucharoff returned to the United States and worked as an orchestrator for Warner Bros. with composers such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Dmitri Tiomkin from 1937 until his death in 1955.

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Bucharoff, Simon, 1881-1955

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